James Vance and Dann Burr are the authors of a great pro-labor young adults graphic arts novel called " On The Ropes". This book tells the story of union activism and of a messenger to the unions who lived in a circus and was hunted down by paid big money corporate thugs from the thirties era where this type of story played out in real. This story is about two men who rode the circus tour in Illinois with two different jobs to perform .
One is a circus trick performer and the other a circus plant hand whose real job was relaying messages from union organizers to the CIO and the battle between labor and companies at this time provoked many protests and secret battles that this story attempts to illustrate as companies went to any length to squash descent and prevent organizing for improved conditions for workers. The drawing and storyline is impeccable for this book and informative guideline of union activism against brutal pushback is pretty much summed up by these authors in this story and ultimate defeat of the goons sent to kill the messenger. Graphic novels tell a story in much more visual details that a regular old novel can become tedious without aids to the words and a book like this works in getting kids information that labor battles were often ugly in American history and the greed of owners unwilling to raise wages lead to serious confrontations with deadly results for members on both sides of the labor battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment